Havlat, Sykora, Brodziak updates; More on Koivu; Sifers sent to Houston; Lots of Minnesotans on CSS Prelim list

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October 20, 2009 - 4:08 PM

By MICHAEL RUSSO

Great news folks. I think this new blog, if it automatically posts like it's supposed to, will be my 1,000th tweet on twitter.com/russostrib. Party at my house!

Here's a quick, funny story for ya. My mother just called me. Over the summer I was visiting my mother and step-dad, and I set them up with Twitter, and automatically sent my tweets to their phones so they can "follow" me.

Now, my mother, if she successfully sends an email, she's so excited, she has to call me. So stupid me, I just assumed they'd have texting on their cell phones. They didn't. I tweeted so much this summer, their phone bill skyrocketed to a pretty magnificent amount. Now, I just tried to get into their Twitter account to change the setting so they don't get texts. Not only don't I remember what I set their password at, I don't remember what I set their user name at. I've got 2,400 people following me. Do you know how long it's going to take me to scroll through all the followers to figure out at least their user name so I can then do the "forgot password" link?

Typical. Typical. Typical.

Guess what? I had today off but ran into Marty Havlat and his girlfriend at a restaurant in Minneapolis. He hopes to play Wednesday against the Avalanche. He practiced today (Tuesday) but said he does want to test his groin at Wednesday's morning skate before a final decision is made.

I talked to Rachel Blount, who covered practice today. She said Petr Sykora (groin) skated again on his own and coach Todd Richards said they're hoping he can rejoin practice any day. He's still day-to-day and won't play against Colorado.

Kyle Brodziak missed practice today with what Richards called an "upper-body thing." But Richards expects Brodziak to play against the Avs, which is why there's such an understandably vague injury update.

Also, Jaime Sifers was reassigned to AHL Houston.

Lastly, the Wild made the obvious selection of captain with Mikko Koivu in my opinion, and not just because he deserves it, but because the Wild had the bigger picture to worry about.

Here's the thing: There were other good choices. Andrew Brunette would have been one, too. But why risk alienating Koivu? Koivu's got two years left on his deal before he can become an unrestricted free agent. The Wild will likely start trying to extend that contract after it's allowed starting July 1.

One of my criticisms with the previous regime was they rarely looked ahead. In other words, in a contract year, is it really smart to, say, ban Marian Gaborik's buddy from the arena and then expect him to just sign on the dotted line? With the captaincy decision, it's a lot less riskier giving the captaincy to Koivu than not giving it to him. Obviously, Koivu isn't just going to sign on the dotted line because he was named captain today, but trust me, this is something he is proud to have received and it does make a difference. It's just not worth snubbing him of something most people felt he deserved anyway.

But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong:)

Also, I tweeted it but didn't put on previous blog. Wild will rotate the A's through a leadership group including Brunette, Havlat, Owen Nolan, Nick Schultz, Kim Johnsson and Greg Zanon.